VERMONT AIRPORT ADDS YOGA ROOM

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. 
Travelers don’t equate the hustle and bustle of airports with yoga, but now some airports are adding tranquil spaces where practitioners can stretch, meditate and get away from it all.

It’s the latest effort to humanize and de-stress the unpleasantness of air travel: yoga rooms at airports. And Burlington, Vt., is the latest of a handful of airports to add the amenity.

“We find that traveling can be stressful so we try to take a little bit of that out,” said Eugene Richards, interim director of the Burlington International Airport.

Travelers have found sanctuary in the small but light and airy space with its mossy green walls, bamboo floor and yoga mats while waiting for flights or when stranded.

“Wow, you made my day! No you made my month!” one traveler wrote in a log of visitors to the new room.

Airports in San Francisco and Dallas also have opened yoga rooms in the past year.

Aside from giving travelers a place to relax and stretch away from busy terminals and food courts, the amenity is aimed at giving the airport an edge with travelers so they’ll come back.

The Burlington airport, for example, also offers travelers free carts, free Wi-Fi, local food and rocking chairs, said Richards.

“Burlington’s a little different and (yoga) kind of goes along with that,” Richards said.